Colorado Wordpress Solutions News

Psssst! Content is the secret to high rankings. Here’s an insider tip. Want your site to get more traffic? What’s the fastest way to make that happen? CONTENT. Unique content makes a site perform well in the search engines. While there are many ways to help a site get more attention, the single biggest contributor is fresh, unique and interesting content. It doesn’t matter whether your site is for a doctor’s office or if you’re selling marbles – the best way to get the engines to pay attention to your site is to pack your site full of pertinent content.

Gone are the days of keyword stuffing and overloading on outgoing links. If you want to gain traction in the engines, the single biggest move you can make is to spend time writing unique pertinent content for your website. There are a couple of preferable ways to get fresh content on your site. One, you can create new pages that are packed with creative and interesting content. Expanding your site’s pages means more text that relates to your programs, services or products. The result is a site much more attractive to the search engines. While this is the best method, it can only take your site so far. There are only so many relevant pages you can create for your site before you’re just creating pages to create pages.

The next best method is to use your blog to continually post new and exciting content directly related to your website. (If you don’t have a blog associated with your site, time to consider one). For a blog to be successful, you need to actively maintain it. Posting new content around once a week is essential. It’s always better if the posts relate directly to your site, however that’s not always an option. As you’ll need to be posting a minimum of around four times a month, it may be hard to always come up with content that is specific to your site. In that case, posting odd, fun or interesting topics can also be useful. This way, you’re still actively creating fresh content and engaging your readers, which tells the engines that your site isn’t dead. If writing isn’t your forte, you can also contract with a company like Colorado WordPress Solutions to write blog content for you. Often times, you can also work social media updates into a blog writing campaign. This means you’ll be getting fresh content on a variety of platforms and reaching a wider audience as a result.

Responsive or Mobile Friendly Websites

A question we’re hearing more and more from clients is, “should my site be responsive or mobile friendly”? The answer is undoubtedly – YES! If you’re up to date on the latest trends in web design and SEO, you’ve probably heard the terms, “Responsive” and Mobile Friendly” being mentioned with more frequency. Why is this? One of the reasons you’re hearing these terms so much as of late is due to Google. Google is now giving additional ranking weight to sites based on whether they are responsive or mobile friendly. Google has decided that sites which are not conducive to a mobile experience shouldn’t carry the same weight as sites that don’t have this capability. How this new policy carries over to actual ranking metrics, remains to be seen. However, the vast majority of our clients aren’t taking any chances and are looking to either convert to responsive or if starting a new site, making sure the site is responsive from the get-go.

Current projections (depending on who you believe) state that mobile use of browser/apps has surpassed (or will surpass this year) internet browsing via a desktop. I know in my own household myself, my wife and kids all access the internet via mobile devices. In talking to friends and clients, it seems the same is true for most households. This means that if you haven’t yet converted your site to responsive or if you’re looking to build your first site, it’s important that it’s “mobile friendly”.

What’s the difference between a “responsive” site and a “mobile” site? Good question! The main differences are:

A responsive site adapts and changes it’s layout to fit the device the site is being viewed from. On most larger devices, such as a tablet, your site will look the same, just smaller to fit the monitor. On phones, the site will “stack” vertically to make browsing easier.

Responsive designs are often times the more economical choice.

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A mobile design is actually a separate site. This can give more flexibility in terms of the users experience as the mobile site can look and act far differently than the desktop version. If budget is an issue, a mobile site can also be restrictive in terms of the design. Some mobile platforms are quite generic and they can be difficult to customize.

A mobile design is undoubtedly more expensive as it is a stand-alone site and requires far more coding to customize the mobile templates to match the site.

There is one other option that works for some sites, especially for WordPress sites and that would be a “Mobile App”. Mobile apps are nice as they can be tailored specifically for your site. They can also be added post site launch fairly easily depending on the platform. However, the app is just that – an application. It will not provide the full responsive experience nor will an app help in Google’s rankings.

Undoubtedly, the move to mobile browser usage is on the rise and all indications are that this manner of internet access will far exceed all others. If you’re a current site owner or looking to have your first website created, having a responsive or mobile friendly site has now become imperative.

So You Want to Build a Website?

After much deliberation, you’ve finally decided you want to build a website. You have realized a website for your business is a necessity. However, the thought of building a website for the first time can be quite overwhelming. It’s likely one of the reasons there exists so many out-of-the-box website solutions. There are a host of companies promising you a website in just a matter of hours that will look unique, have all the tools you need and will be coded in such a way as to magically attract traffic. If only it were that easy! The problem with many of those “instant website” platforms is you get what you pay for. The reality is creating and managing an effective website takes time and effort. If you’re not a web designer it also means you’ll likely need to hire a professional. For many people, they do not have the time or inclination to invest in finding a platform, learning the backend and then implementing an effective website.

The good news is that creating a highly professional website really requires only three steps.

The first would be to purchase a domain name. You’ll need a unique name for your site. As many common website domain names are already taken, it’s best to get creative and determine a domain that will accurately reflect your business and yet be unique enough to still be available for purchase. Yes, you can always contact the owner of that “perfect domain” and try to purchase it directly. Most times however, unless you work for a large company with unlimited resources, this is a costly way to obtain a website domain. It’s better to take some time, get crafty and create something unique. We find Godaddy.com a good place to purchase from. A few things to keep in mind while determining what your domain name will be:

Is it easy to type?

Keep it short

Avoid numbers and hyphens

Use an appropriate extension

For a detailed description on everything to consider when choosing a domain name, please check out this page.

Next you’ll need a host. There are thousands of hosting companies. How do you decide which to go with? First off, free hosting isn’t the route to take for any serious business site. Free sites don’t have the features, space and support that you’re going to need. That leaves you with paid hosting. There are 3 main types of hosting available, Shared Servers, Dedicated Servers and Virtual Servers.

For a informational website with 10-50 pages, going with a Shared Sever is likely the best option. A shared server is cheaper (as you’re “sharing” server space with other sites), however your site performance could be effected if other sites are taking up too much server space. If you go with a reputable company and space issues on your server become a problem, they likely will resolve for you. Given the cost and the features provided, we feel a Shared Server is likely the best option.

Dedicated Servers are generally for businesses with a lot of traffic. The server is only for your business. For most small companies, especially for those with relatively low traffic, this is definitely not the direction to take as Dedicated Servers are the most expensive option.

The third choice is a Virtual Server. A Virtual Server is a good idea for a small business that will receive a higher level of traffic. It’s also a good idea for any type of ecommerce store as a Shared Server likely won’t have enough resources to effectively power your store. Again, for most new websites that have a limited number of pages and aren’t selling products – a Shared Server is likely the best option. Make sure when choosing your host that you do a bit of research on the hosting company. Do they have a lot of negative reviews? Do they offer FTP uploads? Do they offer easy blog installation? Try sending a support ticket before signing up. How quick are they to respond?

The final piece to the puzzle is creating the website. That’s where a website design and development company like Colorado WordPress Solutions comes in. It’s a smart choice having a develpment company build the website for you. Rather than taking hours upon hours of your time figuring out how to install WordPress, customize a theme and add relevant features, why not have us do that for you? You’ll want a website that is highly professional, unique and most importantly – easy for you to update moving forward. While we certainly can and do manage client websites, we find most would prefer to update site content on their own. That’s a big reason we have chosen WordPress as our primary development platform. WordPress offers clients a relatively easy to manage backend, fantastic features and contemporary themes.

If you’re interested in having a professional website created for your business, please contact Colorado WordPress Solutions at 303-482-2080 or check us out online at www.coloradowpsolutions.com.

Professional Website Design Colorado

If you’re looking for professional website design Colorado is your state. Colorado WordPress Solutions is a local Colorado company based in the front range. We have been designing websites for 20 years. During this time we have created ecommerce stores on the Yahoo Store and Big Commerce platforms. That part of our business is referred to as “Colorado Web Solutions“. We have also designed many non-ecommerce sites using our favorite Content Management System platform, WordPress. The WordPress portion of our business can be found at, ColoradoWPSolutions.com.

We are a small firm with two main developer/designers. While our passion is designing sites, we believe that any business is at its core about creating relationships. Many of our clients have been with us for years. We enjoy getting to know our clients and assisting our clients in expanding their online presence and improving their branding.

Colorado WordPress Solutions provides a full range of design and development services. We are the perfect solution for small to mid-size business looking to create their first website or redesign an antiquated site that lacks a professional appearance or up-to-date features. We offer simple WordPress installs, theme customizations, WordPress Multi-site creation and general WordPress services.

If you’re interested in exploring what our firm can provide, please contact us online or call us at: 303-482-2080. We hope to hear from you soon!

Colorado web design and development is what we do here at Coloradowpsolutions.com. We’ve spent the last 20 years honing our design capabilities. Our platform of choice for all but purely ecommerce-sites is WordPress. While WordPress started as a blogging platform, it has grown into a fantastic content management system that can scale to meet a wide variety of business needs.

There are literally hundreds of local Colorado businesses that are the perfect candidates for a site built on the WordPress platform. Many past clients have come to us not having a site to represent their business or if they had a site, it lacked the look of a professionally built website. Nothing will drive potential customers away faster than a site that is poorly designed. Today, we all recognize a quality site when we see it. If the site isn’t clean and contemporary, chances are customers are moving on.

Lack of functionality is another attractive reason to have a redesign completed. We often find clients that use two or three different platforms to manage their website. They may have forms on one site, payment processing on another and content management on a third. Using WordPress as the backend system means all your site mangagement can be in one location. This greatly reduces the time spent managing your website and means you have more time to address other aspects of your business.

With the recent updates Google has made regarding non-responsive sites being dinged in search queries, it’s imperative that your site is mobile-friendly. Using WordPress, your site can be responsive and you won’t need to worry about slipping in the organic search results.

If you’re interested in a new website design or redesigning your current site, please contact us via email or by phone at: 303-482-2080. We service all of Colorado as well as maintaining many national and international clients.

Why Choose WordPress as the foundation for your website? With so many content management platforms out there – why should you choose WordPress over another platform? It really comes down to a few key points.

1. Fantastic Themes – There are hundreds of WordPress themes available. A “theme” gives your website a distinctive look and specific functionality. Each theme can be further customized to fit your specific business model. What we often do as developers is choose a theme which closely reflects what the client is looking for and then customize from there. This is a budget conscience approach to delivering a high-quality site. We can of course create a fully customized site using WordPress for the backend. However for many small businesses, having a fully customized WordPress site (or any completely customized site) is not only expensive, but requires a considerable amount of time and energy from our team and yours. We’ve found that many clients are very satisfied with a partially-customized theme approach.

2. Thousands of Plugins Available – Need an amazing image gallery? You can find a plugin to provide it. Need a Q&A section? WordPress plugins offer that as well. As WordPress is an open-source platform, developers have created a plethora of add-ons, or as WordPress refers to them, “plugins”. Plugins deliver all kinds of increased functionality to your site. If you’re in need of a particular feature which your theme doesn’t offer, chances are there is a plugin available. Advanced features such as image galleries, ecommerce shopping carts, SEO tools, social sharing features and so much more are available via plugins. Many plugins are free to use, others do require a purchase. To get similar functionality on other competing platforms will potentially cost you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

3. Robust Content Management System – Many people hear “WordPress” and the first thing that comes to mind is blogging. It’s true that WordPress was designed initially as a blogging platform. However, it has quickly turned into one of the premier content-driven platforms available. As content is so important for rankings as well as defining who your are to your audience, using WordPress for the backbone of your site means you’ll have a highly functional systematic approach to adding and managing your content.

4. Mobile Friendly – While all WordPress themes are not responsive or mobile friendly, the vast majority of new themes are. Have a theme that isn’t mobile ready? There are plugins available to make older non-responsive sites mobile ready. As more and more online experiences are via phones and tablets, having a mobile friendly site is quickly becoming a must-have.

5. SEO – As a whole, WordPress without any additional SEO plugins does fairly well organically. There are many simple tweaks you can do to a WordPress site to make it perform better in the engines. Beyond the simple tweaks and what makes WordPress stand out from other platforms, are the high-quality SEO focused plugins available. SEO focused plugins can help you write blog posts in a more SEO-friendly manner, create better page-titles, easily submit your site to engines, enhance your rankings and so much more!

6. Ease of Use – Yes, everyone says their platform is easy to use. It’s a common selling point for out-of-the-box solutions. The reality is that some platforms really aren’t overly intuitive, especially for the average person that does not have prior website editing experience. Manipulating HTML, let alone PHP – can be quite daunting. One arena where WordPress really shines is in allowing a non-technical person to easily create new pages, posts, add content, videos and upload images. Often times we can educate a client within an hour regarding everything they’ll need to know to effectively manage their site.

7. Scalability – A defining characteristic of WordPress is that it can grow with your business. As your business develops it’s likely that you’ll want your site to reflect this. New trends, new functionality and new vertical channels are all great reasons to have a site that easily grows along with you. This can range from adding an ecommerce component, adding live chat, tracking user actions – the list goes on and on. WordPress allows clients to easily add new features and functionality without starting over at zero.

8. It’s Easy to get Help – As WordPress is one of the more popular platforms for website creation, help isn’t far away. If you are in need of a qualified developer to further tweak your site, any experienced WordPress developer (like Colorado WordPress Solutions) will be able to quickly familiarize themselves with your website and get to work. Complex custom coding and overly confusing platforms can make future changes difficult – and costly. With such a large developer community to support the platform, you know you’ll have many options available when considering outside help.

Colorado WP Solutions is a division of Colorado Web Solutions. Colorado Web Solutions was established in 1997. Our focus has always been on delivering quality work at a reasonable price. In addition to WordPress, we also design and develop Yahoo and Big Commerce ecommerce stores. For a more in depth look at our WordPress offerings, please visit our new site at: www.coloradowpsolutions.com. If you’re interested in ecommerce, please take a look at, www.coloradowebsolutions.com.

A question all website owners will eventually be faced with is, when to redesign my website? If you own or have owned a brick-and-mortar store, you know merchandizing products and changing up the flow/look of your store is something you’ll do on a seasonal basis, if not more often. Websites are no different. Just like any psychical store, your website needs to be updated from time to time. Here’s a few key questions to consider when contemplating a site upgrade:

Will a site redesign provide a fresh look, improving my brand image?

My site isn’t responsive/mobile friendly, should it be?

Does your site allow you to update content on your own?

Has your site been coded using the latest techniques to improve SEO?

Brand image with consistent and relevant messaging is key for all businesses. If your site does not currently match your image or what your intended audience expects from your service – it’s time to consider a redesign. Studies show that websites need revamped every 2-5 years – both to stay up with current functionalities and to provide your audience with a fresh look and experience.

Having a responsive/mobile friendly site is extremely important. Some estimates put mobile usage in the range of 60% of all internet sessions. Phones and tablets are replacing desktops as the primary means of using the internet. You need your site to reflect this trend.If your site isn’t mobile friendly, chances are you are missing out on effectively reaching a large segment of your audience.

Updating content has been and will continue to be a thorn in the side of many small business owners. If you are not able to update images and content on your own, why not? Today, there are great content management systems available which make creating and updating your own site a reality. If you don’t have a budget to hire a full time webmaster, it makes sense to do as much of the day-to-day maintenance as you can.

Almost on a daily basis new technologies, functionalities, best-practices and preferred coding are introduced. While you don’t need to consistently keep up with everything that is introduced, it is important to refresh your site every few years to keep pace. Additionally, search engines often change their algorithms which will require changes in your structure and coding in order to be well indexed. Staying relevant means staying on top of major trends in terms of coding, preferred navigation, image presentation and current accepted design practices.

To redesign my website or not? Are you now asking yourself that question? Were you already considering whether you should or shouldn’t? If so, please contact Colorado WordPress Solutions at 303-482-2080 or drop us an email at: design@coloradowpsolutions.com and we can help you decide. To see more of our services and plans, please visit our own revamped site: http://coloradowpsolutions.com.

Colorado Web Solutions is excited to announce the launch of our new site, ColoradoWPSolutions.com. The focus of this site is WordPress design and development. ColoradoWPSolutions.com is geared towards those clients looking to create informational or content based websites stemming from a wide variety of industries and businesses. If you’re looking to create a website packed with the latest functionality or redesign an existing site, keep reading!

Since 1997 Colorado Web Solutions has been providing design and development services. In our early stages we designed ecommerce stores on the Viaweb platform as well as providing a host of add-on services such as PPC management, Affiliate Management, Email Management, etc. Beginning in 2006 we paired down our offerings and began to focus almost exclusively on creating Yahoo ecommerce stores. Over the course of those eight years, we have created hundreds of Yahoo e-commerce stores. During this time we have also maintained, created and developed WordPress sites. However we have not actively advertised or promoted this service to our client base – until now. With the creation of our new site, ColoradoWPsolutions.com, we are now offering WordPress design and development.

Colorado WP Solutions offers simple WordPress installs, advanced theme customizations, full custom built WordPress sites as well as WordPress multi-site creation and management. We believe WordPress is the ideal solution for most companies looking to strengthen their online presence. Matt Sampson, the CEO of Colorado Web Solutions and Colorado WP Solutions is excited about this new phase in our continued development, “with the new focus on WordPress design and development, we feel we are better positioned to offer our growing client base alternatives to other less robust platforms while continuing to provide the top-notch service our clients have come to expect from us”. We’ve added some recent WordPress site designs to our portfolio. Please have a look here.

In addition to our new WordPress design and development offerings, we are also planning on rolling out some exciting new e-commerce related initiatives. Stand tuned for more exciting news from Colorado Web Solutions and Colorado WP Solutions!

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We are website designers from Colorado and we are one of Denver's top performing web design firms. Our offices are based in Arvada Colorado and there is nothing better than designing beautiful websites with the foothills right out of our windows. We look forward to working with you on creating your first website or any of your website development needs.